House of dementia

Too many bulletins have infuriated me -- the murder of Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja most of all. The post-mortem report indicates that death was
due to bullet wounds in the left ear and chest. But the left knee had
multiple fracture, and the thighs showed puncture wounds and
lacerations: It's evident that Squadron Leader Ahuja couldn't have been
mobile when he was shot. Also, there were extensive internal injuries
in the right side of his neck, right lung, left liver lobe and small
intestines: It's likely that he was tortured before being shot.

Brigadier Qureshi argued, "Any POW, especially a pilot, is an important
asset... No man in his senses could think of killing him. Had our
forces killed the pilot, how could the other escape unhurt?" Answer: Just so
Pakistan could make this statement. Counter-question: What makes an IAF
pilot an "asset" to the enemy? Scope for milking information and
holding hostage...?

Today's figures are: 47 dead, 12 missing. We don't know their names.
Does that make the casualties casual? Every single death must burrow
deep and nest black in your heart. Everything *must* be tried to stem
the flow of good blood -- blood that voluntarily enlists to prevent the
loss of an inch of India. Which is why diplomatic channels must be kept
open.

India hasn't offered safe passage (we've just napalmed Batalik sector);
if Pakistan were to ask for it, India could "consider" the request. But
Pak cannot ask, for that amounts to accepting its violation of the
Simla Pact. However, if Pakistan does ask, and restores the status quo ante, and returns Nachiketa, and fulfills other such perfectly reasonable
conditions, we must yield. War should be the last option.

Yesterday, an Army official contacted me with a request to change the
"needs" in: "The Indian Army *needs* funds to rehabilitate the families
of Army personnel." He explained that "donation is purely voluntary and
should be done with a sense of patriotism." I stand corrected; that
word was entirely mine. The Army isn't soliciting funds; I was soliciting,
with no endorsement from it.

Frankly, the objection gave me goosebumps. Impossible as it is, I felt
even more respect for the institution. And pride. It's why I say our
defence forces shouldn't come in the purview of foreign-backed/pinko
human rights orgs. None should have the reach to finger their morale.
For they're like NO other constituent of this country. They are
ultra-special -- and they should remain so.

So call me an army groupie but who the hell's aware of the circumstance
of Sonia or Mr Pawar or Atalji? They could all hold hands and leap off the nearest polling booth for all I care. When hostilities broke out,
it's strange how politics stopped mattering. To me, that is; the
patriots never missed a beat: Harkishan Singh, Natwar Singh & Co were
busy demanding George's resignation. Even in a state of emergency, this
low-life was more keen on creating havoc in the very ministry that must
defuse it. To what end is their righteousness? Do they expect Atalji
to induct Indrajit Gupta as DM in the middle of an armed conflict...?

And then we have Iype, Diwanji, Sahay and associates, with The Asian
Age's Seema Mustafa leading the sortie -- all firmly progressive,
liberal, pacifist and peacenik till this point of time -- now making a
case, with the help of those ubiquitous and always anonymous "official
sources," that the defence and foreign ministries are furious about
Sartaj Aziz's visit -- and why there should be no diplomatic
negotiations. This is such an anomaly that it should have put all
non-progressive-democratic-forces on guard. Unfortunately, fundies
aren't exactly known for their brains. Therefore, we now have everybody
clamouring for war. Wunderbar!

There's a lot to be said for Mrs Indira Gandhi and Balasaheb Thackeray.
In a word: Emergency. I don't understand how this crap from the Press
is tolerated when the country is facing a war. The Indian Express holds
forth on how the Army screwed up intelligence and surveillance. Untold
numbers of retired, always retired, military men tell the government
where it's wrong -- VIA THE PRESS! Rediff lets Pakistan know that the
prime minister of India was hesitant to retaliate against the
infiltration! What the **** is going on?! This is not politics! This is
national security!

When the US traverses half the globe to bomb various countries at its
whim, there's not a word out of place from either CNN or BBC. Apart
from
a straggly few columnists, nobody's said a word against NATO attacks.
With the sole exception of Vietnam, whenever the West has gone to war,
its Press has toed the official line. But, that's what makes the West
superior: They needn't follow hazy ideals; they set them -- for others
to follow. Give Indians imported excreta, and they lap it up like
cream, anyway

In this house of dementia, the only sane word's come from Mr K P S Gill:
"Looking at the situation in Kargil, I feel the immediate need is that
we should leave the Forces to do the job there and not get into
ridiculous debates of the sort that are currently going on. Some of the
issues that have been raised are just for the political ends of the
people who are speaking. We are right now in -- what the prime minister
described as -- a war-like situation and the important thing is to
bring
the crisis to an end. After that, they can hold any number of debates,
inquiries and post-mortems. Right now, we have to give total support to
our soldiers who are fighting on the border and to the families of
those
who have been killed while serving the nation. It is a difficult time
for them. Our energies should be spent in keeping in touch with the
families of the servicemen." I've *always* loved this Sardar.

Recently, a seminar on Media -- An Instrument of Psychological
Operations was held by the Army in Baramullah, near Srinagar. The aim
was to collate all available avenues to work against militancy,
especially since, as the Indian Army contended, "Alone, we cannot win
the war for the nation. Because it is a proxy war -- a war of the
minds." Guess what the media's reaction was. The watchdogs of the
nation
objected to the notion that that they would allow themselves to be
wielded as instruments, if you please. These aren't watchdogs! These
aren't even dogs! For dogs are a loyal and trustworthy species.

Kashmiris, Hindu and Muslim, have suffered immense damage and brutality
at the hands of the militants in the last decade. But what did we hear
about the most? Right, the atrocities of the security forces against
"civilians" and human rights workers. So much so that SSP Ajit Singh
Sandhu, who banished terrorism from Tarn Taran, committed suicide. You
see, the security forces wouldn't have hunted down our intrepid ones --
like the militants did their detractors. Bloody cowards.

Pakistan openly uses its official media to broadcast anti-India
propaganda across the border. How does one counter the misinformation
blitz if not through the Indian media? Pamela Bhagat writes, "Today, it
is in the national interest to spread the net of responsibility. The
media could be the key imperative in lowering the morale of militants,
strengthening and sustaining the moral of the public and most important
of all, fortifying the minds of the troops." Ooh noo, we can't be
"instruments" of the Indian State, and certainly not of the
hitherto-evil Army -- no matter what the ends may be. However, we're
happy to be tools of the worldwide pinko glee club.

Ball-mad, I hit Rediff's mail page for diversion. *Mistake*. I found
CPI-M activist Subhashini Ali politicising Kargil: The BJP has "no one,
repeat no one, from the anti-British freedom movement in its top (or
middle or lower) echelons." Perhaps. But it has no British
collaborators, either. No need to explain the 1942 People's War and the
betrayal of Indian nationalists to the British, and "quisling" Subhas
Chandra Bose.

Then, the BJP is guilty of "talking to Strobe Talbot whenever he
wants."
Well, Russia's gone bourgeois, and the only country we simply must be
inspired by -- China -- keeps cancelling even the annual meet fixed a
year in advance. Besides, why not object to the various "progressive"
political delegations which were camped in China just before they
brought down the Indian government?

Then, "agreeing to CTBT." Unh? Since when are pinkos against
disarmament? Since it's become clear that, post-Cox Report, China's not
going to ratify the treaty.

Then, "taking a bus to Pakistan." Er... isn't it the pinkos who take
bhai-bhai junkets to Pakistan and who supported Open-Border Gujral?
Isn't it they who failed at their candle-light vigil at the border? Now
that the Lahore process is internationally recognised as a milestone in
bilateral relations, are pinkos worried that the declaration's shine --
despite being eroded by Pakistan's violation -- can still be retrieved?
After all, Pak's found no support for Kargil, what with the US, UK,
France and Russia refusing to raise the issue in the UN. That must hurt
pinkos more than it does Pakistan.

Then, "So who was comparing Advani to Sardar Patel? And how many times
did we hear that this was the only 'patriotic' government that would
fix
Pakistan forever." This gives insight to the pinko mind -- they attach
a
different meaning to "fixing Pakistan forever". It's the old
hang-'em-high Stalinist tradition, I suppose. Besides, as my pal
Supratik said, "If Advani went in and bombed the shit out of the pigs,
this scum will say that Advani's fascist offensive destabilised
Indo-Pak
relations."

How different from parents children often turn out to be: My mom is as
apolitical a person as one can possibly be. And, Subhashini Ali is the
daughter of Captain Lakshmi, and obviously named after the "quisling"
of the Indian National Army.

Indians are forever doomed to be at war with reality. Take Gaurav
Kampani's sound bytes: "statements that the Kashmir insurgency was
tottering on its last legs have been belied... for the first time in
the
decade-long insurgency, Kashmiri militants have attempted to dominate
the critical Zoji la pass... the holding operations along the high
ridges of the Kargil-Dras region demonstrates Pakistan's role in
fomenting the insurgency in Kashmir... Unlike 1965, however, when
Pakistan hoped to foment a rebellion in Kashmir through the
infiltration
of 7,000 army regulars, this time its goals appear more modest."

To begin with, the issue of Kashmiri militancy is not so facile that
amateurs overseas can grasp it via a few articles. One, the Kargil
infiltration has everything to do with Pakistan's frustration over the
*decline* of local Kashmiri militancy as with its own internal
problems -- sectarian clashes, public anger at truncated civil rights,
unemployed Taliban guerrillas, anxiety over reduced US support, and so
on. Two, Kashmiri militants aren't the problem in Kargil -- it's the
Afghan, Irani, Peshawari and Punjabi mercenary. In fact, Kashmiri
counter-militants have been armed by the Indian Army to take the
Zoji-la
Pass. Three, Pakistan can't foment what's hardly there -- which is why
it sent in foreigners. Four, Pakistan's goals aren't "modest": whereas
earlier insurgencies were enter-destroy-and-leave operations, this
time,
mercenaries have been sent in to *possess* land. So please, spare us
Kashmir.

As for Kampani's nuke-related expositions, I quite accept that the
expressed views are solely the author's and don't necessarily reflect
the position of his Nonproliferation employers. However, it's just as
true that we often take positions, consciously or otherwise, which
would
bring us maximum benefits from pleased employers. Now if Kampani were
writing about, say, gastronomy, the disclaimer would've been credible.
As things stand, we nuclearwallahs take American propaganda with a
pinch
of uranium.